Starter Kit. Idea 132 of 500. Cluster 6
Jaffna crab and cuttlefish curry as a chilled export dish for the Sri Lankan shops abroad
The mechanism, from the book
Dilmah says it earns over 3 times the national average price for tea, because it does its own blending, branding and packing. The proof has been sitting inside the industry all along.
The first step
Cook one batch of crab curry and one of cuttlefish curry, pack them in sealed trays, and have a food technologist check how long they keep chilled. Then ask the chilled-food buyer at two Sri Lankan supermarkets abroad what shelf life, packaging and price they would need to stock them. Their written requirements become your specification and your first target order.
- Who pays first
- A Sri Lankan supermarket abroad whose Sri Lankan customers miss Jaffna crab curry and cannot buy it ready-made where they live.
- What leaves today
- Jaffna crab and cuttlefish leave frozen and raw; the curry, which carries the region's name and the higher price, is rarely exported finished.
Ask first
- Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources. Ask what rules apply to processing crab and cuttlefish for export.
- Sri Lanka Customs. Ask what papers chilled seafood needs to leave the country.
Check before you spend
That the kitchen meets export food standards, that the cold chain holds from kitchen to shop, and what the buyer country requires for seafood.
Find out these three numbers
- What do shops abroad pay for a chilled curry?
- How long does the curry keep chilled?
- How many shops abroad would stock it?
A comparison from the book
Sri Lankans abroad. Appendix
"The single most valuable thing a Sri Lankan in Melbourne or Zurich can do"
Sri Lankan shops abroad are the first buyers, and the start of the brand.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
From the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? by Dr Maheshika Halbeisen. The idea and the mechanism are the book's; this kit was written for the site.